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MSV and Mini Truck State Laws

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has compiled information regarding medium speed vehicle (MSV) and mini-truck laws by state. According to the institute Kentucky, Montana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Washington currently have MSV laws. Oregon’s law will go into effect at the end of September and Colorado has a law that will be triggered by the US DOT’s setting of MSV standards. The latter may not happen anytime soon:

In 2008 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied several petitions to create a new class of vehicles known as medium-speed vehicles (MSVs), which would have a top speed of 35 mph. The petitioners asked that MSVs be subject to a set of safety standards greater than those applied to low-speed vehicles (LSVs) but substantially less than those applied to conventional passenger cars. NHTSA denied the petition because unlike LSVs, which are permitted to have a top speed of 25 mph and are intended for use in controlled, low-speed communities, MSVs are traveling in higher risk traffic situations and should comply with all of the safety standards set for passenger cars.

Kentucky, Montana and Colorado’s laws allow for a top speed of 45 mph for MSVs while all the other states with laws allow for a top speed of 35 mph. Learn more: IIHS.org

The following states have mini-truck laws: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming. There is more variance in the laws for these vehicles since states classify them differently. Some are classified as mini trucks or mini utility trucks and others as utility vehicles, off highway vehicles, or even LSVs or MSVs since some mini trucks are speed restricted although many can go 45 to 55 mph. Top speeds allowed by the vehicles vary from 25 mph to a high of 55 mph, and the types of roads they can be used on vary as well. Learn more: IIHS.org